He Has Made Me Clean

Scripture: Having determined the allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God. Acts 17:26

Observation: Leviticus 13 and 14 are in the middle of detailed priestly instructions concerning one point: How priests determine who is ritually clean and unclean. Food, disease, childbirth—all sorts of things made someone ritually unclean. While there were probably health reasons, Acts 17 sheds some light on this. God set the boundaries (including ritual rules), so that people might seek God. How do rules about leprosy help people seek God? Seeing the value God places on being ritually clean would remind people of the value God places on being spiritually clean. And ultimately, we are unable to keep clean on our own. So our only option is to seek God. The lambs and doves sacrificed to make atonement for physical uncleanness are insufficient for dealing with our spiritual uncleanness.

Application: If I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive my sins and cleans me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Today, I give thanks that Christ delivered me from the rigorous rituals of cleanliness. And I praise Christ that he has made, and continues to make, me clean.

Prayer: Jesus, being clean before God is a big deal to you. Forgive me for not honoring that in my life. I trust you to forgive me and cleanse me today.

A Shared Sacrifice

Scripture: And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Exodus 13:4

Observation: God is giving His people instructions for the Passover. As part of this ceremony, households were to select their best lamb and sacrifice it for the meal. Here, tucked away in a detail, we find instructions for those households that are too small, too poor to own a lamb. In this case, they are to partner with a neighbor to share a lamb.

Application: God is so gracious to think of this. Certainly there would have been many homes where a lamb was a luxury. I can imagine the stress and fear that could arise as families felt excluded from worship because they did not have the requisite offering. Yet God comes up with a plan to provide. Instead of lowering the requirement (use a goat instead), he shares the load. He calls neighbors to partner in worship. Worship and ceremony here become a shared experience. A shared sacrifice. I think the application for me is not only God’s gracious provision for the poor, but his desire that we see worship as a communal act. We are not coming to God merely as individuals, or as family, but as The Family, God’s family.

Prayer: God, help me see the communal nature of worship and model it and lead our people in this. Pray especially for Scott, our worship pastor, as you have called him to lead us in worship. Give him insight and expectation of what you want to accomplish in and through us in worship.